Reductio ad absurdum

lib·er·al \Lib"er*al\, Adj. 1. Favoring political and social reforms tending towards democracy and personal freedoms for the individual; advocating reform or progress in education, religion, etc. 2. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; not bigoted. 3. Open to new ideas for progress; tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

An interesting phone call...

I was sitting on my ass watching 24 on Sunday night when I received an interesting phone call. I looked at the name and number and didn't recognize either, against my better judgment I answered the call. It was a girl I used to work with at Canada Post (we'll call her Jane), let me be more specific, back when I was a driver she was also a driver. I hadn't seen her in well over a year until Thursday when I saw her at the Tim Horton's across the street from the CMPP. (Steve or Dwight can tell everyone what that stands for). When I saw her she wasn't wearing a Canada Post uniform and was sitting with some people who looked like they were having some sort of meeting, papers and clip boards on the table and everyone using words like 'best practices' and 'growth opportunity'. I didn't think much of it, she is a part time driver and most part timers have some other job.
Jane started the call by reminding me who she was, if I hadn't seen her 2 days before I wouldn't have been able to remember her, that should give you some idea of the level of familiarity that existed between us. She told me she saw me at Tim Horton's and that I 'looked interested' in what she was doing! Uh ok. I was interested in my large regular coffee (a regular is one cream and one sugar, the double/double being way to sweet and rich for my taste) and listening to my colleague Duncan discuss his trip to St Lucia. I acknowledged that I had seen her and she began to shill for some type of 'exciting business opportunity' that needs young exciting people, blah blah blah.
She wanted to 'sit down' and talk about these 'opportunities' with me at my nearest convienance and wanted to know if I was available on Monday. Now I'll admit that the thought of sitting through whatever the hell Jane is selling or hyping is about as compelling as watching the World Series of Ironing I was curious as to exactly what company or product she was hooked up with. I told her that I was pretty busy (you've all seen the pictures of this house) and that I wasn't going to meet her during my one and only break of the day. I suggested she email me some details of this business, this kind of threw her for a loop. I could almost hear her rifling through her cold call handbook trying to come up with the appropriate response. She said she wasn't sure what information she could email me, well how about whatever it was you were going to dump on me in person? She said she'd come up with something but she couldn't discuss 'figures' over email. OK, whatever.
She then said she'd give me a call after she sent the email to arrange for a meeting, my poker senses were tingling when she said that. The way the situation had gone to this point was a classic poker scenario. She had called me out of nowhere and attempted to get me to agree to a meeting on her terms, this is like a big pre-flop bet. When I came back with 'email your shit first' that was like calling her big bet. Then she comes right back at me with we'll set up a meeting after the email, as if her sending me an email meant that I had agreed to a meeting afterwards. She was trying to bully me! My only response was to come over the top, I said "send me what you have and I'll have some people take a look at it for me". Boo-yeah, I'm all-in chicky-poo. Now she knows that even if I do agree to meet I'm very skeptical, I've done some research and I've had actual friends and acquaintances who advise me and that I don't make rash decisions. She played the 'oh, of course whatever you want' card but she backed off. I imagine the email will be waiting for me when I get to work tomorrow at 5:30, I'll post it on the blog when I have a chance.

1 Comments:

  • At 9:23 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Wes, I have an "interesting business opportunity". I'm moving to Nigeria to claim the $100,000,000 left to me by the deceased warlord general who bequeethed me this sum in his will. I have never met him nor been to AFrica, but by the power of Allah he has contacted me from beyond the grave. All I need is for you to front me some travel money and I will give you 40% of whatever I get. I await your response.

    Jane

     

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